Case Studies

Cloud9 is a leading provider of white label & international roaming SIM cardswith 40+ global customers and since 2010, we have shipped over 1.5 million SIM cards to resellers and travel brands globally. We are now shipping more IMSIs than SIM cards for SoftSIM and eSIM applications. Here are some samples of how our SIM cards and IMSIs are being used:

Case Study 1 - Turn Key SIM Solution ( Affiliate model )

This client is a provider of discount travel tickets aimed at the student / young person market, and is focused on EU travel in particular. They wanted a quick and easy route to market and a full headache free turn-key solution. Cloud9 supplied a website where the subscribers could securely log in and top up. These funds are paid directly to us and in return the client is paid a generous ongoing commission. Cloud9 also handle fulfilment and first level customer support via email and 24/7 call centre.

We have worked with the client to tailor services to meet the roaming requirements of this travelling community, with an emphasis on Data and SMS, so providing a low cost way to keep in touch with family and friends not only by calls but social media sites such as Facebook , Pintrest and Instagram. We took away the hassle and provided a service that offers free inbound calls in every EU country as well as discounted outbound.

Case Study 2 - White Label SIM Solution ( Reseller model )

Working with a major travel insurance brand from the Asia Pacific Region Cloud9 provide a full service in terms of supplying the SIM cards for each of their own brands targeted at different destinations (15 in total), the competitive roaming rates, the technology in terms of platform and billing engine to make it a additional service offering that in the 9 months from launch has generated over $1/4 million additional revenue for them.

This particular client wanted to "own" the customers meaning that they would arrange and take top ups directly. This meant that they would collect all funds and benefit from "breakage" (unused call credit). They also shipped the SIM cards directly to their customers and handle full end user support. Knowing heir customer market they were very keen to set their own retail rates and thus determine their own margins.

Our development team worked hand in hand with the client's marketing team to develop specific ideas such location tracking (for the safety of the user and also if a claim is made we can confirm that the traveller was actually where they say they were!) and the development of a country specific switch to help reduce the cost of termination and increase profitability in this popular destination.

Case Study 3 - Instant roaming with low data pricing

The Client is a small MNO in Africa. They had limited coverage and were paying extremely high roaming rates for data. Cloud9 were able to set them up with a multi-IMSI SIM card solution. This gave them instant roaming all around the world while at the same time gave their subscribers access to low cost data roaming.

Billing was kept simple by selling them bundles of data, either on a 'day pass' or a 30 day bundle. This meant that the only integration required was:

The C9 IMSIs will be loaded onto the Cloud9 HLR. Client's IMSIs will still be loaded on the Client HLR and will function exactly as normal when selected.

There will be an applet on the SIM that will select the Cloud9 IMSI when the SIM is outside the home country. At all times inside home country it will select the Client IMSI.

Cloud9 will supply bundles of data to Client to be used on each SIM card. For example we can supply a 1 Gigabyte bundle that expires 1 month after first use or a ‘day pack’ that expires at the end of the day in which it is used.

The subscribers will be billed as normal via the Client OCS ( Online Charging System ) for both domestic usage and the roaming data bundles.

Case Study 4 - Brand extension

In this case Cloud9 worked with an MNO outside the UK that wanted to offer services to ex-pats living in the UK but who travelled to their home country regularly. Cloud9 entered into a heavily discounted roaming agreement with the MNO using the Cloud9 IMSI. In addition Cloud9 have a National Roaming Agreement with a UK MNO.

This way the MNO was able on a single SIM card to offer:

Local rates while using the SIM card in the UK

Local rates while using the SIM card when visiting home

Low cost international rates when calling from UK to home

Low cost international rates when calling back to the UK

A local telephone number in the UK

A local telephone number in the home country

In addition the MNO was able to 'extend' their network outside of their home country and leverage their brand to market to ex-pats.

Case study 5 - Remotely Programmable SIMs

Cloud9 supply a Chinese company with profiles (IMSIs). One profile is used as a bootstrap IMSI which has complete world-wide coverage. This profile is used by the programmable SIM to recognise in which company the SIM is located and to facilitate the download of a ‘destination’ profile. Cloud9 supplies a destination IMSI for certain regions that offers a very low per-megabyte price in these regions.

The Chinese company ships these programmable SIMs through their network of travel agencies and operate their own Remote SIM Provisioning platform.

An MSISDN is allocated to each bootstrap profile. This MSISDN can receive SMSs even while another destination IMSI is selected. This enables a user to register with services such as WeChat by receiving and entering a standard registration code.

Case study 6 - SoftSIM LPA provider

The customer is a company in China that specialises in providing software that resides in a handset based either on the Qualcomm or MediaTek chipsets. This software acts as a Local Profile Assistant and manages profile downloads between the handset and a Remote SIM Provisioning server.

In this case the domestic SIM is used as a bootstrap with Cloud9 supplying some of the ‘destination’ IMSIs.

The software company supplies a full service to some handset manufacturers in China including the LPA, RSP server and profiles.

Case study 7 - SoftSIM smartphone manufacturer

The customer is a handset manufacturer in China. They are in control of their own Local Profile Assistant and Remote SIM Provisioning server software.

The domestic SIM is used as a bootstrap with Cloud9 supplying some of the ‘destination’ IMSIs.

The smartphone manufacturer has an API with Cloud9 to provision IMSIs on the Cloud9 HLR when they are subscribed to.